Cowboys have best crop of young talent in NFL, and it's not even close

Smitty

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By: Zeke Barrera | January 20, 2017 12:07 pm ET

While the door has closed on the Cowboys 2016 season, expectations and the long-term outlook of the team flourish. While nothing is guaranteed, the collection of blue chip talent Dallas currently has in place is second to none. There’s no team seemingly poised for continued success than the Cowboys.

Dallas was one of the league’s best teams last season and in theory, by the time the majority of their roster enters their prime years, they’ll have already been battle-tested. This should set them up for the deep postseason run that’s eluded this franchise over 20 years. Retaining the talent beyond their rookie deals is another obstacle the team must balance (which they’ve already started with the longterm contracts given to offensive lineman Tyron Smith and Travis Frederick), but in the meantime, there’s almost no better starting point to build up a juggernaut than the Cowboys.

Recently, Ezekiel Elliott, Dak Prescott, and Byron Jones were all listed in Pro Football Focus’s ranking of their 25 best players under the age of 25. Dallas had more players on the list than any other team-the have players on both sides of the ball with tantalizing the combination of youthfulness and excitement. Similarly, the Cowboys were at the top of USA Today’s NFL Rebuild Rankings, which ranks each of the 28 eliminated teams based on their potential for next season.

Given the way Dallas slugged through their schedule, and their heart-stopping barnburner of a playoff game against the Packers, it should come as no surprise that Dallas is listed first, and they likely will be listed among next year’s early Super Bowl favorites as well. Here’s what USA Today had to say about the Cowboys heading into next season:

“It’s hard to find the silver lining in a 13-3 season that ended in the divisional round, but Dallas is well-situated for the foreseeable future. With Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliottand three all-pros up front, the offense could be overpowering for years to come. Making a call on Tony Romo remains the biggest offseason story, but a secondary shake-up could be ahead with cornerbacks Brandon Carr and Morris Claiborne as well as safeties Barry Church and J.J. Wilcox set to become free agents. With Randy Gregory suspended again, the pass rush also needs refurbishing.”

Yes, the defense needs some time to catch up to the offense, but it should receive some attention in the offseason, and could be due for a jump. Linebacker Jaylon Smith, who’s still just 21 years old, seems to be ready to play 2017, and could join the already impressive assortment of young talent the Cowboys have collected. The combination of youth and talent that Dallas has in place simply makes them too hard to ignore as perennial contenders.

Dallas has been slowly and steadily rebuilding it’s roster for some time. Jason Garrett took over as head coach midway through the 2010 season, he’s slowly and methodically instilled his mantra and philosophy of team building. the Cowboys have gotten younger, better at drafting, and have an established identity that’s enforced by it’s young playmakers. Although the longtime faces of the team are up there in age (Tony Romo is 36 years old, Jason Witten will be 35 by the time next season kicks off), the average age of Dallas’s 53-man roster is only 26 years old. Next year, depending what happens this offseason, that number is likely to go down. Practically the entire 2017 roster will have been born in 1988 or later.
 

Simpleton

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You'll have to forgive my skepticism.
Why?

Aside from irrational pessimism and the fact that Jerry used to laud our "talent" each and every offseason, primarily based on the fact that we had Romo, Witten, Owens/Austin, Ware and Ratliff but no depth.

Prescott had arguably the best season for a rookie QB ever, Elliott looks like a transcendent talent at RB and the OL has three First Team All-Pros who are all 26/27, not to mention Bryant who is still 28/29. Show me another team with that amount of talent under 30.

Obviously the defense has to be upgraded but I don't think there is another team in the league that has as much elite young talent.
 

ravidubey

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We have talent for sure. It's all stacked on the offense, which is why our conservative approach-- especially by years end-- is infuriating.

Sean Lee is good, but despite his best efforts the dropoff in talent around him is too stark.

We have some promise in Collins and Jones (and maybe Irving), but too much hinges upon the completely unreliable Lawrence.

I feel like you could replace the entire defense and there would be no appreciable difference in performance.
 

ravidubey

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Well, that depends on who you replace them with, doesn't it?
How to even respond?

Since 2010 we've used two 1sts, six 2nds, three 3rds, and one monster FA contract on defense. The closest to special we've come from this investment is Sean Lee, and we all know his injury problems.

Lawrence, Gregory, Carter, Jaylon Smith-- next to nothing except one magic play in the playoffs vs Detroit. Morris Claiborne-- good god, to think he could have been Michael Brockers and Bobby Wagner.

Ty Crawford, the supposed 3-technique Marinelli secret weapon, has quietly become an overpaid and oft-injured disappointment. JJ Wilcox has similarly underperformed in spite of remaining healthy.

So replace them with anyone. It doesn't matter, you can't do much worse given what we've spent.

Bottom line is we've taken shortcuts across the board on defense and wasted strong resources.

Because of our misses in the 4th round (AOA, Wilber, Matt Johnson, Webb, and now maybe Tapper) we've relied on bottom-of-the-barrel scrapings in Barry Church, Jack Crawford, Irving, Mayowa, Terrell McClain, and apparently Cedric Thornton to fill out the roster. These are roster-churn guys and are not supposed to be major contributors.

Again, replace them all-- they are JAGs.

Even our successes are average:
- 1st round workout warrior "athlete" but not top performer in Byron Jones.
- A very good 5th round pick in Scandrick, but at the end of the day just 8 interceptions in 9 seasons and on his last legs
- A solid 4th round pick in Hitchens, but nowhere near special.
- A semi-decent 6th round CB in Brown, but again, this is a depth guy.

We might (finally) have a hit (don't want to jinx it) in Collins? Encouraged that he got better as the year progressed.
 

marsbennett

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How to even respond?

Since 2010 we've used two 1sts, six 2nds, three 3rds, and one monster FA contract on defense. The closest to special we've come from this investment is Sean Lee, and we all know his injury problems.

Lawrence, Gregory, Carter, Jaylon Smith-- next to nothing except one magic play in the playoffs vs Detroit. Morris Claiborne-- good god, to think he could have been Michael Brockers and Bobby Wagner.

Ty Crawford, the supposed 3-technique Marinelli secret weapon, has quietly become an overpaid and oft-injured disappointment. JJ Wilcox has similarly underperformed in spite of remaining healthy.

So replace them with anyone. It doesn't matter, you can't do much worse given what we've spent.

Bottom line is we've taken shortcuts across the board on defense and wasted strong resources.

Because of our misses in the 4th round (AOA, Wilber, Matt Johnson, Webb, and now maybe Tapper) we've relied on bottom-of-the-barrel scrapings in Barry Church, Jack Crawford, Irving, Mayowa, Terrell McClain, and apparently Cedric Thornton to fill out the roster. These are roster-churn guys and are not supposed to be major contributors.

Again, replace them all-- they are JAGs.

Even our successes are average:
- 1st round workout warrior "athlete" but not top performer in Byron Jones.
- A very good 5th round pick in Scandrick, but at the end of the day just 8 interceptions in 9 seasons and on his last legs
- A solid 4th round pick in Hitchens, but nowhere near special.
- A semi-decent 6th round CB in Brown, but again, this is a depth guy.

We might (finally) have a hit (don't want to jinx it) in Collins? Encouraged that he got better as the year progressed.
That's a depressing read.
 

1bigfan13

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I have to agree with Geng. Without fail every time we enter a season with high expectations we fall flat on our face.

2008, 2010, 2015......all years where just about every Cowboys fan and football expert saw the Cowboys as favorites to get to the Super Bowl.

So even though I'm hopeful that we'll take the next step next season, I know not to get my hopes up. Especially since the schedule appears to be much tougher this year. We'll have games against the AFC West, Seattle, Atlanta, and Green Bay. Wouldn't surprise me at all to see Dallas only win 8 or 9 games.
 
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1bigfan13

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How to even respond?

Since 2010 we've used two 1sts, six 2nds, three 3rds, and one monster FA contract on defense. The closest to special we've come from this investment is Sean Lee, and we all know his injury problems.

Lawrence, Gregory, Carter, Jaylon Smith-- next to nothing except one magic play in the playoffs vs Detroit. Morris Claiborne-- good god, to think he could have been Michael Brockers and Bobby Wagner.

Ty Crawford, the supposed 3-technique Marinelli secret weapon, has quietly become an overpaid and oft-injured disappointment. JJ Wilcox has similarly underperformed in spite of remaining healthy.

So replace them with anyone. It doesn't matter, you can't do much worse given what we've spent.

Bottom line is we've taken shortcuts across the board on defense and wasted strong resources.

Because of our misses in the 4th round (AOA, Wilber, Matt Johnson, Webb, and now maybe Tapper) we've relied on bottom-of-the-barrel scrapings in Barry Church, Jack Crawford, Irving, Mayowa, Terrell McClain, and apparently Cedric Thornton to fill out the roster. These are roster-churn guys and are not supposed to be major contributors.

Again, replace them all-- they are JAGs.

Even our successes are average:
- 1st round workout warrior "athlete" but not top performer in Byron Jones.
- A very good 5th round pick in Scandrick, but at the end of the day just 8 interceptions in 9 seasons and on his last legs
- A solid 4th round pick in Hitchens, but nowhere near special.
- A semi-decent 6th round CB in Brown, but again, this is a depth guy.

We might (finally) have a hit (don't want to jinx it) in Collins? Encouraged that he got better as the year progressed.
This is why I've suggested that the scouts who are responsible for scouting college defensive players need to be put on notice. Over the last 7 drafts the best 3 defensive players we have to show for all of those drafts are Sean Lee, Byron jones, and Maliek Collins.

That's unacceptable, IMO.

I think a major part of the problem is the "ultimate decision maker" gets way too caught up in trying to be cute and finding that diamond in the rough, rather than just making the sound football decision.

To use a baseball analogy. With our rounds 1-4 picks the Cowboys far too often swing from their heels trying to hit home runs rather than settle for the sure fire double. This is definitely a Jerry Jones trait. In fact I believe he's even admitted it himself a time or two.

The weird thing is it seems that they tend to take more of these risks on the defensive side of the ball.

I think it's safe to say our defense would be a lot better if they'd just play it conservative for a change.
 

L.T. Fan

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Why?

Aside from irrational pessimism and the fact that Jerry used to laud our "talent" each and every offseason, primarily based on the fact that we had Romo, Witten, Owens/Austin, Ware and Ratliff but no depth.

Prescott had arguably the best season for a rookie QB ever, Elliott looks like a transcendent talent at RB and the OL has three First Team All-Pros who are all 26/27, not to mention Bryant who is still 28/29. Show me another team with that amount of talent under 30.

Obviously the defense has to be upgraded but I don't think there is another team in the league that has as much elite young talent.
The team did and will continue to do well in regular season. If there isn't a change of philosophy at the coaching level you could see another 13/3 season and tank in the playoffs.
 

Angrymesscan

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I have to agree with Geng. Without fail every time we enter a season with high expectations we fall flat on our face.

2008, 2010, 2015......all years where just about every Cowboys fan and football expert saw the Cowboys as favorites to get to the Super Bowl.

So even though I'm hopeful that we'll take the next step next season, I know not to get my hopes up. Especially since the schedule appears to be much tougher this year. We'll have games against the AFC West, Seattle, Atlanta, and Green Bay. Wouldn't surprise me at all to Dallas only win 8 or 9 games.
We were supposed to have a cakewalk of a season this year and what was our SS in the end? For starters we played 2 of the conference finalists in their home...
Scedules look very different the year before.
 

Genghis Khan

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I have to agree with Geng. Without fail every time we enter a season with high expectations we fall flat on our face.

2008, 2010, 2015......all years where just about every Cowboys fan and football expert saw the Cowboys as favorites to get to the Super Bowl.

So even though I'm hopeful that we'll take the next step next season, I know not to get my hopes up. Especially since the schedule appears to be much tougher this year. We'll have games against the AFC West, Seattle, Atlanta, and Green Bay. Wouldn't surprise me at all to Dallas only win 8 or 9 games.
Exactly. And it's been about a decade since we had back to back playoff appearances.

I'll believe it when I see it.
 

1bigfan13

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We were supposed to have a cakewalk of a season this year and what was our SS in the end? For starters we played 2 of the conference finalists in their home...
Scedules look very different the year before.
Yeah but we knew going into the season that Green Bay and Pittsburgh were likely playoff teams.

Detroit was a surprise good team, I'll give you that, but everyone else was average to below-average as expected.
 

Genghis Khan

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Why?

Aside from irrational pessimism and the fact that Jerry used to laud our "talent" each and every offseason, primarily based on the fact that we had Romo, Witten, Owens/Austin, Ware and Ratliff but no depth.

Prescott had arguably the best season for a rookie QB ever, Elliott looks like a transcendent talent at RB and the OL has three First Team All-Pros who are all 26/27, not to mention Bryant who is still 28/29. Show me another team with that amount of talent under 30.

Obviously the defense has to be upgraded but I don't think there is another team in the league that has as much elite young talent.
You mention depth, and I think that's a much bigger deal for us than it's given credit for. We had way more injuries this season than people realize, because our depth just about across the board has been fantastic.

That depth will be tested this off-season with the amount of free agents we have.
 

Genghis Khan

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Yeah but we knew going into the season that Green Bay and Pittsburgh were likely playoff teams.

Detroit was a surprise good team, I'll give you that, but everyone else was average to below-average as expected.
I agree. Going into 2016, Green Bay, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Baltimore all looked like tough games. Plus of course your division always gives you some tough ones as well.

I think a lot of people thought that the schedule was absolutely not going to be a cakewalk.
 

L.T. Fan

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You know what's depressing? Martellis Bennett is going to the Super Bowl and Dallas is still sucking hind tit.
 
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